Yeah, that eye avoidance was directly after Lewis's second PF. I think he was just afraid to look Tomlin in the face...Tomlin was pissed. Lewis should probably be cut after last night's bullshit.

I know that Antonio Brown made a completely stupid move fielding that punt inside the 3, but I saw enough the week before to be convinced that he and Sanders should be able to platoon and take over for Logan.

Dwyer, me thinks, is vastly inferior to Redman in the area where he should be most valuable -- short yardage. If Redzone doesn't make this team, I'll be sick. Dwyer can go home for all I care. Color me unimpressed.

Interesting that no one pointed out how effective that Gay guy was in nickel coverage. Too bad he isn't worthy of anything other than a nickel package.

Still can't believe we have not overhauled the OL in the past few years. This year could get ugly

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"Dreith said I hit Sipe too hard. I hit him as hard as I could. Brian has a chance to go out of bounds and he decides not to. He knows I'm going to hit him. And I do. History."- - - Jack Lambert, after referee Ben Dreith ejected him from a game for knocking out Browns QB Brian Sipe.

As a general response to KC, I thought Lefty had horrible protection last night. Worse than what Ben and Dixon had.

Agree completely. The point I was trying to make was that, sans the typical newbie INT's, Dixon played comparably to Leftwich behind the starters so far this preseason. With the "lessers" in, Dixon has outperformed BFL. It might be a better option to let him keep the seat warm while BR is out, & see what he's got.

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Cleveland: The only NFL city to never play in, or host, a Superbowl. That bears repeating.

As a general response to KC, I thought Lefty had horrible protection last night. Worse than what Ben and Dixon had.

Agree completely. The point I was trying to make was that, sans the typical newbie INT's, Dixon played comparably to Leftwich behind the starters so far this preseason. With the "lessers" in, Dixon has outperformed BFL. It might be a better option to let him keep the seat warm while BR is out, & see what he's got.

The Blame GameFiled Under: Steelers, Steelers Sideline, Offensive Line PlayWin or lose, there's always more to it than meets the eye. There are obvious gaffes, and then those which appear to be obvious, but the crux of the problem lies elsewhere. The bottom line though, is that a team wins together, and loses together. Finger pointing is the single most destructive element that can tear apart a locker room. And something to be avoided at all costs.

Take the Steelers loss at Denver the other night. An obvious gaffe is a false start, right? So obviously Max Starks jumping off-sides, followed on the next play by Flozell Adams was a no-brainer. As an astute fan of the game, you might find yourself jumping the gun and want to point the finger.

"Hey, these guys don't have their heads in the game!"

Easy to make the call. Unless you realize that the Steelers were going on a silent count. In a silent count, the QB signals the center, and the center keys the rest of the line. You have a rookie center starting his first game with a 350 lb pro bowl NT breathing heavily on his snout. Was it the rookie center or the two veteran tackles? This takes some real timing. If the center is just a hair slow in his mentally rhythmic countdown, false start. If he's ahead of the silent snap rhythm, the defense has a decided jump on the offense. Same with the tackles, and their ability to stay on rhythm. Does that make the false starts acceptable? No, but it sure changes the discussion, doesn't it?

So, who's to blame on this one? We used to have two rules back in the day. Rule #1-Never point the finger at someone else. Rule #2-See rule #1.

Let's play a game. How can we pin the play of Lewis on our rookie center? Obviously, I'm just being facetious, but to blame the false starts of two tackles who already have a history of less than stellar play and who were a problem that most fans noticed heading into this game (and the season...and last season for that matter) on a rookie center who seemed to all who watched to have a very good (and great by the standards set by the rest of the O-Line) game is just ludicrous.

I used to play center and when we ran a silent count, it was the rest of the lines responsibility to watch the ball for the snap. They don't get the advantage over the DL of knowing when the ball was snapped, but the point of a silent count was either because the noise prevented a more traditional snap count (in which case why would the center be able to signal the tackles any better than the QB) or to catch the defense off guard (in which case, the rest of the OL would have the advantage of knowing that it was coming, but still having to watch for the snap to happen). I agree that players should never point the finger at each other or it becomes a big locker room problem, but, as fans, we do have some knowledge about the game, and do have the right to call out our Tackles when they probably wouldn't sniff playing time (let alone start) on half the other teams in the league.

Addams used to block for Troy Aikman for Christ sakes. Aikman...Troy Aikman. The QB who beat the Steelers in SB XXX in '95. How old is this guy?

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OK Chris. Now that we have practiced kissing and cuddling, we'll practice eating out...at a fancy restaurant.

I agree with you, k-man, but I posted this because I do like Wolfley's POV most of the time. I think the larger point that they're still getting their timing down is worthwhile, and one of the guys at Steelers Lounge analyzed the rest of Adams's Denver game and rated him pretty highly. So I'm willing to give the guys a couple of weeks to work this shit out, but yeah, I think FS and getting beaten by speedy edge rushers will haunt Flo all season. My question is, are the OTs queueing off the ball per se as you did, or are they running off a count?